The present invention relates generally to a shotgun sighting system and more specifically of an improved means for adjusting the shotguns point of impact for elevation and windage.
In the sport of shotgun shooting, such as hunting waterfowl or shooting at high speed clay targets, the shooter must be able to quickly and accurately mount or bring the gun barrel up to firing position, and, just as accurately, acquire the target and determine where to point or aim the gun. The shooter must take many variables into consideration, including the speed of the target, the angle between the shooter and the target, and the windspeed and direction. Further, the shooter must also consider the sighting and aiming characteristics of the shotgun itself, particularly the point of impact.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,878,308 by Rose it is stated that it is considered highly desirable for a shooter to be able to adjust the shotgun""s point of impact, which is generally described as where, using a standard distance such as 40 yards, the shot pellet cloud hits the target in relation to where the gun was actually aimed. One method shotgun enthusiasts have traditionally used to adjust their shotguns to achieve proper point of impact has been to literally bend the shotgun barrel to correct for misalignments and other variables in aim, so that the shot cloud hits where the gun is aimed. Other, less drastic methods for accomplishing this result, have included mounting adjustable sighting beads at the breach and/or muzzle end of the shotgun barrel, so that the shooter can adjust the gun""s point of impact, and elevation in the vertical plane. Some methods have also added intricate mechanisms for vertically adjusting a raised rib mounted along the length of the shotgun barrel. None of these methods, however, provide the shooter with the ability to adjust the shotgun""s point of impact in the horizontal plane, commonly referred to as windage.
These prior methods are complex and cumbersome, however, and, as stated, do not address the need to also adjust the point of impact in the horizontal plane, as may be necessary due to either the wind""s influence on the shotgun pellets, the target""s horizontal motion, the gun""s own shooting characteristics, or some combination thereof. In addition, the prior methods do not suggest a sighting system in which the shooter can quickly and easily adjust the gun""s point of impact, in both the vertical plane and the horizontal planes.
The present invention not only solves the needs noted above, but also provides a new and unanticipated benefit, in that it is portable, and can be quickly and easily removed from one shotgun and installed in another shotgun whose barrel is threaded to accept the present invention. In this manner the point of impact of the second shotgun can also be quickly and easily corrected.
The present invention provides a system of interchangeable sight points, preferably of the fiber optic variety, which are mounted onto sight mounting rings which slip over a tube which extends from the shotgun barrel. More specifically, the apparatus is typically assembled as follows. The end of a tube is screwed into the threaded muzzle end of a shotgun barrel. The end of the tube screwed into the barrel is hereafter referred to as the inside end. A sight mounting ring, whose inner diameter matches, or is slightly larger than, the outer diameter of the tube, is slipped over the discharge end of the tube until it makes contact with a raised stop running circumferentially around the exterior surface of the tube. An annular threaded nut, whose interior threads match threads located on the discharge end of the tube, is then threaded onto the discharge end of the tube such that as it threads itself toward the inside end of the tube it pinches or clamps the sight mounting ring against the raised stop.
Once the apparatus is assembled as described above, the point of impact may be adjusted in the horizontal plane by loosening the threaded nut, rotating the installed sight mounting ring and sight point to the desired location either on the left or right side of the barrel, and retightening the threaded nut. Similarly, the shotgun""s point of impact may be adjusted in the vertical plane by loosening and removing the threaded nut, sliding the sight mounting ring off the discharge end of the tube, and replacing it with another sight mounting ring having its sight point at a different height above the barrel, either higher or lower, and retightening the threaded nut. Such elevation and windage adjustments can also be made in the same manner in the field.
As can be appreciated, the sighting apparatus of the present invention is portable, and may be quickly and easily removed, wholly intact, from the original shotgun and installed on any other long barreled firearm with a similarly threaded barrel.